


Cake, Dream, Death and John

by emef



Category: Constantine, The Sandman (Comics)
Genre: Gen, kitchen implements with funny names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-21
Updated: 2013-06-21
Packaged: 2017-12-15 16:09:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/851464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emef/pseuds/emef
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the croissants are <em>dangerous</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Cake, Dream, Death and John

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this years ago. Many thanks to Alex for the bakery accessory suggestion.

John hears again from Dream on Tuesday. Standing at the corner of Marylebone and Beaumont, he considers the pâtisseries in a bakery window when Dream speaks up, talking to him as though he'd been there the whole time.

"The croissants are _dangerous_ , John."

John sputters. "Could you _be_ more random."

Dream hands him a _poche à douille_.

*

When he comes to, John is still holding the floppy baking accessory, and Dream is telling him to hurry. "I have been waiting for several minutes, Constantine. Patience wears thin."

"I'm hungry", John answers.

They are in a dark space, but something smells like Christmas. He feels things - alive things - moving in the edges of his vision, and John is told to stay close, and keep a strong hold on the pastry bag.

"This place is not SAFE for you. But we require your assistance", Dream tells him.

John's stomach growls. They advance through the darkness, though John notices his legs do not move. Dream calls out, and John suddenly feels powerfully angry, excited, afraid, sad, confused and horny all at once. And he is still hungry.

One by one, shapes take form in front of him, and though he feels his vision blur, John feels as though he knows how they must before he sees them. They all contrast wildly with one another, and they seems somehow out of place. There are six people (beings?) in all. Seven with Dream. Mind-bogglingly delicious smells waft through the air.

"John", they say, as one. "Our brother, Devour, was banished from this and other planes of existence. But he returns. We require you to return him to the _poche à douille_ of his confinement. Comply."

John faints.

*

In the alley behind the Marylebone street bakery, John stares up as someone - a girl - holds out a hand for him. Helping him up, the girl smiles at him and says : "excuse me for a minute". She wanders out into the street.

John follows, dizzy from his repeated losses of consciousness, and watches as the girl speaks to a teenager. The teenager is eating a profiterole, and as they talk, John sees the teenager seemingly become two - simultaneously collapsing on the street while a second, identical, teenager is still in conversation. The girl and he hug, and without seeming to, the second teenager disappears.

The girls drags John back into the alley, and explains that she is Dream's sister. She tells John that their brother, Devour, has ripped himself out of banishment, and slowly poisons all the sweet foods of this plane of existence. She tells John that if Devour is not contained, that she will have to guide all those who eat sweat foods to their new existences, just as she did for the teenager. That there will be far more of those people than she would like.

"In essense, John", she tells him, "this place has become a monumental game of cake _and_ death"

*

John succeeds, THE END


End file.
